Tigers 'deserve' extra backing in 'ruthless' PWR

A photo of Amy Cokayne making a run for rugby football union club Sale Sharks on a grass pitch in a Premiership Women's Rugby match against Leicester Tigers. Cokayne is wearing a purple kit and holding a white, orange and blue ball while being challenged by Leicester players in light green shirts and socks with light green and dark blue shorts. Some of Cokayne's teammates are visible in the background Getty Images

Leicester are looking ahead to the new Premiership season in November

Ben Miller
BBC Sport

Leicester Tigers boss Fraser Goatcher says he was "emotional" at the club's decision to provide more backing for his side in the "ruthless" Premiership Women's Rugby (PWR).

Leicester announced an "enhanced strategy for growth", extra funding and "continued commitment" to its women's programme and team, who won the Women's Championship North 1 in 2023 and joined the Premiership the following year.

"I remember when I got the call saying the board had signed it all off," Goatcher told BBC Radio Leicester.

"It's the least the girls and this programme deserve. The club deserves to have a women's team that is reflective of Leicester Tigers."

Goatcher became director of women's rugby alongside head coach Ross Bundy in April 2025, taking over a squad who had finished second-bottom for a second successive season and won three of their 16 league games.

With two matches of this campaign remaining, Leicester have one point, having lost all 14 matches, and are 28 behind second-bottom Bristol Bears.

"The PWR's absolutely ruthless," Goatcher said. "If you make one mistake - if you're 5% off your game - you're going to get punished.

"We've learned that the hard way this year. This group will be stronger for the lessons they've learned this season.

"We're looking forward to the last two games and then next season, putting all those lessons into action."

Exeter Chiefs Women rugby football union player Maddie Feaunati holds the ball while holding past a Leicester Tigers Women player during a Women's Premiership Rugby match on grass. Feaunati is wearing a predominantly black kit with white lettering, while her opponent is wearing a light green shirt with dark green trim and dark green shorts. Both players are wearing white bootsRex Features

Leicester joined the top flight alongside Trailfinders Women in 2023

Leicester's women's programme promotes the sport within the city, Leicestershire and the surrounding areas and has partnerships with Lichfield's regional team, Nottingham University and the UXI international women's rugby institute, which aims to provide a pathway to PWR.

Their six-year plan, Project Genesis, has the ambition of making the team self-sustaining and "the leading force in the women's game" by 2027.

Tigers chief executive Andrea Pinchen previously said that more than £750,000 had been invested in the programme, building on figures showing a 17% year-on-year participation in the women's game in the UK and an increase from 25,000 to 40,000 adult women playing rugby in England over five years.

"We're super excited but the pressure's now on because we've got that funding," Goatcher said.

"We've got to go and make it work now. It's put us in a place where we can be really excited for next season.

"I'm really pleased that we've retained most of the core squad and there are some exciting signing announcements to come pretty soon, so there are big things coming."

Leicester's final away match of the season is against 15-time top-flight champions Saracens at Twickenham Stoop on Saturday (14:30 BST), followed by a finale at home to Loughborough Lightning on 7 June (15:30).

That game will take place at the Welford Road home of the club's men's team, where the women's side made their debut days after their first-ever fixture in September 2022.